Summer push

A quick shot from yesterday's photo shoot for the landscape portfolio.

Behind on my processing from recent hikes (Mt Lipsett & Running Rain Lake) plus a family weekend event, but I'm also behind at work with way too many balls in the air. It would help if designs weren't getting grabbed out of my hands before I can fully check them. My garden?? Mother nature has been watering it, weeds are shorter than the veggies (for now). So in other words, same old.

Yesterday was a good day getting around to seeing a few sites that have matured 3-5 years and getting Sheldon to shoot some video for use building marketing stuff this fall / winter. Hard to carve a day out of the busy schedule but I promised myself it would happen so got it done. Hope to do one more part day in August too.

Nearly August... have some things upcoming to look forward to including a long weekend so time to put that shoulder back against the stone for a bit. Roll'n roll'n roll'n....

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Buzz

Tarda tulips finally popped today in my garden

Now that we are finally getting some nice weather & colors & such in the garden I seem to be shooting more. I am also forging ahead with social media at work & as such am 'the voice' of The Landscape Artist Inc on Facebook / Twitter which is inspiring me to shoot more too. Check me out over there, but I am also loading most of the photos I shoot for that at Zenfolio too, in my landscaping section. It is not very well organized yet but it's coming along.

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Shoot'n much?

No... been busy see? But this was out my office window. Nursery munchers.

Tomorrow setup & then Thurs-Sun. sell-sell-sell at the Home and Garden show. My twenty-second spring show, my how time flies. Of course I'd rather be skiing. Boys home from UofA & even a "free" place to stay in Fernie I had to turn down... oh the humanity! Got today in with Eric; it was puking snow this aft, conditions are outstanding. Sigh...

I have big plans for March though... more plans than month unfortunately. Must get back behind the camera, April things get BUSY.

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sCATtered

New version of Lightroom, setup the export feature- check.
A random photo... I think I might start collecting photos of the random signs I see when out surveying.

Anyway, just grinding down the old todo list for stuff relating to writing/video project. I have way too many photos to wade thru.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” - Pablo Picasso

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Creston Colors

High River is in ‘brown season’ now so it was very refreshing to soak in the fall colors of Creston last weekend. This orchard is for sale… hmmm…

Finally reached the end of what has been a particularly taxing season. “The end” in that for the next while no boss & no ‘babysitting’ but still a ton of work to do. Nice long deadlines though & I don’t have to spend every day in the office so it’s all good. Also need to tuck into some photo processing among other things. But first, in celebration of the change of season I’m taking Monday off & going hiking. See you out there!

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Fall Rush

A couple frames from a project that took us three years to complete design to finish. Customer has requested an as-built planting plan so I shot a bunch of photos to reference... winter project.


Way behind on processing photos, fourteen designs in progress, but hard to be inside now that we are finally getting Indian summer. More hiking on the weekend in the fall glory & planning for some upcoming desert hiking. Throttle is stuck open but in a good way.

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Crazy Pills

I’m always whining about being busy but add to that having to fend for myself for two weeks, an extra couple pinches at work (is it reasonable to work 14-15 hours a day??), a big project at Silverland & you get ‘holy shit’ busy. Had to figure out how to do internet banking & how to work that blasted washing machine… I feel like I’ve been taking crazy pills!


Not all work though, I got in a backpacking trip on the long weekend & caught up to an old high-school buddy for an afternoon of fun in Kananaskis. Today is a loose ends day so finally caught up on my photos too.

I need to spend a little more time shoot'n, with a few exceptions the shoot'n I did on the backpacking trip were taken too quickly... brain wasn't set right or something. Maybe I'll carve out part of a day soon for some camera time. But in the meantime summer is going by way way way too fast!! Now where's my todo list...

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Portfolio Shoot'n - votivational!

My favorite time of year to try & get a few new portfolio photos, see some three to five year old projects & assess how the plants & construction have held up, that kind of thing. Try being the operative word though. Getting out to do it when there is a little cloud cover & there isn't some major deadline pinning me in the office... well when it does happen I try & enjoy it.


The processing will mostly be winter work but had a quick look thru to make sure I didn't screw anything up too bad. Hopefully more to come.

As for the direction this blog is taking... most of my current photography is over at zenfolio including last Saturday's scramble to The Fortress. Just a better forum for those trips but I'll post here from time to time with something noteworthy or if I perhaps do something I like in processing.


Or another photo challenge. Or whatever. I'm open to ideas. Anyone??? Anyone???

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Extreme Osmosis

Getting landscapers to work in the rain is not my favorite task ... mostly because I can strongly relate.


Kelly's idea of comedy did not impress the 'saftey officer', but it did sum up the situation.

I'm way behind... a backpack, some hikes, a graduation, awards things, anniversary get togethers... its coming. Eventually.

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Bright Side

Shot from a surveying day... in a yard where this was really the only bright spot.


How many things do I need to shed, cancel, defer, drop, shank, or shit-can with extreme prejudice in order to singlemindedly focus on this one thing that I love? source

I found this & felt like sharing... kinda the opposite of how things are going lately. The mountains, they call.

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All Rev'ed Up

...and nowhere to go. Stupid weather.

Best quote in quite some time from a client, part of an email commenting on his design:

"Keep the front bed as per Design #2. (wifes name) likes it, therefore I now like it."

Gotta appreciate a guy who knows how to make a compromise ;>)

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Scraps of Spring

In my garden this weekend, oaffus-doaffus dog & weather battered, but still a welcome splash of color


First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus.
- Lilja Rogers

Went to the Calgary Horticulture Society’s annual trade show yesterday & I actually learned a lot. I also got to meet up with quite a few nursery & landscape types who otherwise scatter to scurry around with their respective heads bent to their work the remainder of the season.

Quote of the day came when Ken Wright of Bow Point Nursery Ltd was asked in a seminar on native plants to comment on deer proof plants: “Deer are going to eat whatever plant is your favorite.” I thought that was pretty much the perfect answer.

I was going to go looking for prairie crocus today but decided to focus on a few other tasks like a landscape plan with a really screaming deadline & my hip deep office mess of just about everything that I’ve dropped in the past month.

As Eric had his Easter school break this past week I took a mid-week “powder day”. Since I finally have some backup in the office net productivity was unaffected as that day easily represented the time I would spend in an average past week doing stuff other than my job. Well, maybe one day wasn’t enough actually. Reaching that point of the year where the work outstrips even the most ‘productive’ week so hack & slash … onward I toil. Have a good week, & hopefully spring is coming to your neck of the woods too.

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Spring 2010 roundup

First of all… have you noticed its spring?? Or what passes for spring in this part of the world. Shhhh… don’t jinx it.
Tessa has been enjoying the warm weather.


Work is almost full bore, the final nudge of the throttle to full comes when the crews start & that will be another ten days or so (depending on the weather). Will likely get a few days skiing in over the school break now that basketball is done.

So you got left hanging with basketball… Eric’s team came second at Zones which gave them a berth into Provincials. The basketball played at Zones was intense; the team that came first in the Zone went on to a second place finish at Provincials.

The first game of Provincials was a loss in a tight game & it bumped the team to the “C” pool so at best an eighth place finish. The coach talked to the kids about playing the second game using the whole bench, get everybody on the board, (& if it was close try & win). It was a 20 point loss, certainly a team they could have beaten, but it finished the tournament on a real happy note & I felt it was the right move. In many of the games leading up to that point some of the rookies had seen little or no action… now they can say they played at Provincials. I never checked the score-sheet but I think everyone recorded at least one basket.

For Eric the last game of his High School career came on the following week as he & team-mate Brandon were selected to represent NDC in the 1A/2A South Central Zone All-Star game. The participants were split East & West & they made a game of it; the final score 93-91. It was smiles all around with many of the kids saying that was the best game they had ever played in. Eric said “I was actually getting passes on my fast breaks”. A great way to finish the season for me too watching Eric among his peers whom he had played against throughout the past three seasons (or longer).

On the weekend I jammed 1512 Basketball shots into Lightroom and spat out 258 keepers into my Zenfolio site for sharing with the athletes, family & friends. I had been considering Zenfolio for quite a while having initially been introduced to it by an scrambling partner Wietse. That was more than a year ago but with the revamp on the company website I needed a new place for what formerly was my Designers Corner segment… the first segment on the build is my tree portfolio which has saved me a lot of time describing the trees I propose for landscape clients in the past…. So the time had come for Zenfolio. I hope it will help me to stay a bit better organized when it comes to my photos and as Wietse pointed out, it acts as an online backup. Such that anything in the ‘clouds’ is secure; it’s another place to keep ‘stuff’.

So if you want you can wander over to Zenfolio for basketball, skiing, or the start of the landscape portfolio. Just mind the pylons, barricades, & open man-holes… heavily under construction.

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Get out of Dodge

My office window this morning. Sometimes it's all about timing.

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Fall? Really???

Wow September went fast! Blinkity blink and it’s officially fall. Circumstances at work have me pinned down playing 'office boy' full time which puts me in a generally foul mood but I’ve got some fun planned for the weekend so it’s all good.
Remind me when it snows that I should have just put the machine on and gone surveying this week… that’ll make me feel better about ‘wasting’ a week of +30 weather inside.

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It is Alive!

Well, mostly alive. There were still some caps & finishing touches yet to go on when I took these shots. I don't generally show my work on this blog but this project was fun albiet stressful as it got shoe-horned into an already hectic sked.
This was an interesting project because I was learning a new software package on the fly as I worked the clients thru the design process of this outdoor fireplace & liased with the fireplace vendor, our construction manager, & that boss guy who wanted his say.


I know Carol is out there laughing about the votive shelf... yes I do know what a votive is. Photos with actual votives to follow someday maybe.

It came out pretty much as designed except for the 'hat' got bigger (client change order). Of course I would be remise (and risking my health) if I didn't give a huge amount of the credit to our great clients, our construction manager, carpenter, construction helpers (including Mike) & the crew that applied the cultured stone. Great job guys!
I love it when I get to see a concept thru to reality!

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Weed Kid

Shoulder the wheel & all that so I haven't been shooting much. Well I have some garden shots but IMHO my garden is looking a little neglected. To my eye anyway.

I need to hire this kid, or at least keep his number & look him up in six or seven years when he's old enough to labour. 25 cents a weed & 3 dollars an hour... I know I was working in a nice neighborhood but either that's a little steep or I'm totally in the wrong end of this business.

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CLD certification

My rates for 'free' advice just went up...
More on the CLD (Certified Landscape Designer) program. And for a limited time a link to the press release is on The Landscape Artist Inc. home page. Trying to get a little promo mileage out of this thing.

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